Margaret had been awake for thirty-one hours when they finally told her it was time. She sat in the waiting room of the Synapse Institute with a cup of terrible coffee going cold in her hands, watching the second hand on the wall clock make its slow, indifferent circuits. Around her, the room hummed with … Continue reading The Last Version of You
Science Fiction
Could Back to the Future’s Time Travel Actually Work?
Everyone knows the rules by now, even people who haven't watched the trilogy in years. You need a flux capacitor. You need 1.21 gigawatts of power. And you need to hit exactly 88 miles per hour at the moment it all comes together. Say those numbers out loud to almost anyone and they'll nod, maybe … Continue reading Could Back to the Future’s Time Travel Actually Work?
Stargate: Building a TV Universe from a Single Film
Here's something worth thinking about as Amazon MGM Studios gears up for a brand new Stargate series: a movie that Roger Ebert once called out by name as evidence of cinema at its worst somehow spawned over 15 years of television, 364 episodes across three live-action series, two direct-to-DVD films, and a Guinness World Record. … Continue reading Stargate: Building a TV Universe from a Single Film
The Weight of the Eagle
The aqueduct hummed. Marcus Varro had never noticed it before — not in fifteen years of service, not through three postings across the empire. But standing here in the pre-dawn stillness of the Virginian hills, listening to the ancient water channels feeding the sprawling city of Nova Londinium below, he noticed it now. A low, … Continue reading The Weight of the Eagle
The Weight of Ash
The summons came at the third bell of the night cycle, when the Celestine Throne's corridors were empty and the great ship hummed to itself in the dark between stars. Maren Solís had been awake anyway. She sat at her desk in the cramped antechamber adjoining the Chancellor's private quarters, pretending to review trade manifests … Continue reading The Weight of Ash
The Starfire Legacy
Captain Jayna Corvax stood on the bridge of the Crimson Marauder, her boots planted wide as the ship shuddered through another barrage of plasma fire. Red emergency lights painted her sharp features in dramatic shadows, highlighting the scar that ran from her left temple to her jawline—a souvenir from the Ganymede Heist three years ago. … Continue reading The Starfire Legacy
Between Sleep and Waking
The flyer had promised better sleep for $200 and a free sleep mask. Maya signed up because her student loan payment was overdue and because she'd been having the kind of insomnia that makes you feel like you're living underwater—everything muffled and distant and wrong. The sleep clinic occupied the third floor of a medical … Continue reading Between Sleep and Waking
The Signal from Kepler-442b
The message had taken 1,200 years to reach Earth. Dr. Mikayla Banks stood in the observation deck of the Remembrance, watching Kepler-442b grow larger in the viewport. Somewhere down there, the descendants of the original colony ship Independence were waiting—if any had survived at all. The signal had been simple, almost primitive: a repeating sequence … Continue reading The Signal from Kepler-442b
The Scribe’s Paradox
Brother Thomas had been copying manuscripts in the scriptorium of Glastonbury Abbey for seventeen years, and in all that time, he had never once questioned the steady rhythm of his days. Dawn prayers, breakfast of bread and ale, then hours bent over vellum with his quill, carefully reproducing the words of Saint Augustine or chronicling … Continue reading The Scribe’s Paradox
Love Across the Stars
The emergency klaxon blared through the corridors of the Harmony's Edge as Captain Zara Cronin dove behind a twisted beam of metal, plasma fire sizzling past her head. Three years into the Terran-Kepler War, and she still wasn't used to how the Keplerian weapons hummed like angry wasps before they tried to vaporize you. "Status … Continue reading Love Across the Stars
The Confusing Middle 